The Dave’s Temporary Insanity bottle features a smiling red hot pepper, basking in the blazing sun, shades on and a drink by his side. The ingredient list reveals that both “hot peppers” and “hot pepper extract” are ready to spice things up. A warning advises the use of “one drop at a time” — always good advice where anything containing the word “insanity” is concerned. Other warnings include “Keep away from eyes, pets and children” and “Not for people with heart/respiratory problems.” The slogan “Temporary Pain, Lingering Pleasure” peaks my curiosity.

I open the bottle and inhale the mouthwatering aroma of smoky, sweet tomatoes. The sauce has a medium thickness and a color like tomato sauce, but slightly darker. Ignoring the “one drop at a time” warning, I put a few drops in my New England clam chowder. Continue Reading

When the results of the 2010 Scovie Awards, the world’s leading recognition for hot and spicy products, were announced, Chef Wayne Howey of Tropical Island Gourmet was excited to get the call from the competition organizers. Palm Beach Gardens-based Tropical Island Gourmet Co., which distributes a wide assortment of bottled sauces and Spice Blends, has received a First Place 2010 Scovie Award.  In the industry’s most rigorous blind tastings, a panel of the country’s top culinary experts sampled hundreds of the world’s most lauded gourmet foods, and the top scoring products each won a coveted Scovie banner.

First Place in the Medium Hot Sauce category was awarded to Tropical Island Gourmet’s top selling “Fire Ant Juice” which is manufactured by Sauce Crafters  in Riviera Beach Fl.  Over 600 products from around the world competed for top honors.  Continue Reading

The maker touts this Xtreme Hot Sauce as one that is 100% all natural. This idea is reinforced by the plain brown label, reminiscent of what your local butcher might use to wrap your fresh cut meat in. The large x dominating the logo, combined with a vessel shaped liked that of a hip-pocket sized bottle of hooch completes this attention-grabbing package.

Ok; bottle open. First whiff gives an unmistakable hit of fresh garlic. Very strong and extremely pungent. My wife thought I was chopping garlic for a recipe, it filled the air that much.  We poured about a half-teaspoon onto a tostitos scoop chip. It comes out of the bottle very slowly, due to the large garlic chunks. Continue Reading

Ashley Food Company, known for its world famous Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauces, has created yet another reason for extreme hot sauce lovers and collectors to make new room on their shelves. Called Mad Dog 357 Pure Ghost Hot Sauce, this new extreme hot sauce features the world-record setting Bhut Jolokia pepper from Northeastern India, also known as the Ghost pepper.

“The Ghost is truly one of the most unique peppers in the world, not only for its record-setting heat but also for its unique earthy flavor,” says David Ashley, master sauce crafter and president of Ashley Foods. “The goal was to create a sauce that would bring out the Ghost Pepper’s unique qualities of extreme heat and signature flavor, without the need for additional pepper extracts.”

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What are the hottest peppers and how is it determined which one is the hottest? A method of testing peppers is called the Scoville test. This method of testing a pepper’s pungency units was invented by Wilbur Scoville in 1912. Mr. Scoville determined his test results by taking the extracts of many types of chili peppers and diluting them in a sugared water solution until none of the heat remained. The testing was accomplished by a panel of 5 “judges” who would taste these solutions and then tell Mr. Scoville when they no longer felt any heat. This testing was very subjective as your can imagine and results were not very consistent. The hottest peppers, such as habaneros, have a rating of 300,000 or more, indicating that their extract has to be diluted 300,000-fold before the capsaicin present is unnoticeable.

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